Judge: 17 years not enough for sex abuse of 7-year-old

Gabor Degre | BDN

Gabor Degre | BDN

Katie Dube, 27, of Glenburn speaks with her attorney Tzovarras Hunter in the courtroom at the Penobscot Judicial Center in Bangor on Monday. Dube withdrew her guilty plea after District Court Judge Bruce Jordan rejected her plea agreemant to serve a maximum of 17 years in prison.

BANGOR, Maine — A Glenburn woman who was scheduled to be sentenced Monday on sex charges involving a 7-year-old boy withdrew her guilty plea after the judge rejected an agreement that called for her to serve a maximum sentence of 17 years.

District Court Judge Bruce Jordan said that Katie Dube, 27, should spend between 21 and 24 years behind bars for the sex crimes she has admitted committing.

Dube was arrested with her live-in boyfriend, Terrence A. Pinkham, 27, of Bangor, in May on charges that they sexually abused the child in early 2012.

The child, now 9, lives with a relative in rural Penobscot County and is related to Dube.

The Bangor Daily News is not naming the relationship between the defendant and the victim nor is the paper identifying the family he now lives with in order to avoid identifying him.

Dube pleaded guilty in October to five counts of gross sexual assault and two counts of sexual exploitation of a minor. The agreement negotiated between Michael Roberts, deputy district attorney for Penobscot County, and defense attorney Hunter Tzovarras of Bangor called for Roberts to recommend Dube spend 17 years in prison in exchange for her guilty pleas. Tzovarras on Monday urged the judge to sentence his client to between seven and 10 years in prison.

Under Maine law, if a judge rejects a plea agreement, a defendant may withdraw a guilty plea and go to trial. Dube did that Monday but a trial date was not set.

Dube also may decide to re-enter her guilty pleas now that she knows the judge’s thinking on how long her sentence could be, Roberts said Monday after the court proceeding.

Pinkham and Dube were indicted May 30 by the Penobscot County grand jury on five counts of gross sexual assault and two counts of sexual exploitation of a minor. Pinkham has pleaded not guilty to them and is scheduled to appear in court again later this month, Roberts said Monday.

Dube sobbed throughout most of Monday’s hearing. She described a life of drugs and violence with Pinkham, who she said forced her to engage in sexual abuse of the child.

“I’m extremely ashamed,” she told Jordan before the judge told her he was rejecting her plea deal. “A lot of things can be replaced but kids aren’t one of them.”

She apologized to the victim and the dozen or so family members in the courtroom.

In rejecting the plea agreement, Jordan said that the Legislature has said that gross sexual assault on a child under the age of 12 is so severe a crime that it is punishable by any number of years. He also said that Dube chose to resume a relationship with Pinkham, who has a history of drug abuse and domestic violence, when he was released from prison in early 2010 after five years in a stable relationship with another man.

“She initiated contact with Pinkham,” Jordan said. “She said that she went back to him for his looks and the drugs.”

Dube and Pinkham remained Monday at the Penobscot County Jail unable to make bail.